Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to an electronic device including a minimum fingerprint sensing area and a fingerprint information processing method thereof, and more particularly, to a device and method capable of accurately registering and identifying a fingerprint only with sensing a very small area of a fingerprint.
Discussion of the Background
As a fingerprint pattern is unique to each individual person, fingerprints are widely used in the field of personal identification. Particularly, fingerprints are widely used in methods for personal identification in various fields such as finance, criminal investigations, security, etc.
A fingerprint sensor has been developed for recognizing the above described fingerprints and identifying each individual person. The fingerprint sensor is a device that comes into contact with a human finger to recognize the fingerprint of the finger and is used as a method of determining whether the user is an authorized user.
As methods for implementing a fingerprint recognition sensor, various recognition methods including an optical method, a thermal sensing method, a capacitive method, etc. are known. Among these methods, the fingerprint recognition sensor by the capacitive method acquires a shape of a fingerprint (a fingerprint pattern) by detecting variations of capacitance according to shapes of ridges and valleys of a fingerprint when a surface of a human finger comes into contact with a conductive sensing pattern.
Recently, handheld devices provide not only telecommunication functions such as a phone call and a short message service but also various supplementary features for finance, security, etc. that utilize personal information, and thereby a need for a locking mechanism of the handheld devices is an issue of growing importance. To improve the locking mechanism of the handheld devices, terminal devices in which the locking mechanism is installed using the fingerprint recognition are being developed.
Recently, smartphones show trends of miniaturization, slimming, shortening, and lightening, and because it is preferable that the area of the display unit be maximized for user convenience, minimizing the non-display region in which the fingerprint sensors (12 and 22) are installed is eventually essential.
Therefore, a technology is necessary capable of enhancing user convenience in registering and identifying a fingerprint, reducing the non-display region in which a fingerprint detection unit is installed, and registering and identifying a fingerprint with high accuracy with a minimum sensing area at the expense of a reduction of the non-display region.